DIY Winter Window Clings

 One of my all-time most popular posts is the window clings we made for Valentines Day last year. These are so easy and fun to make and all you need is fabric (puffy) paint and a large ziplock bag. While we were busy decking the halls last week Em decided we needed a new set of window clings for Christmas.

All your little artist needs to do for this is draw right on the ziplock bag with the fabric paint and let them dry. They take about a day or two to dry and then peel right off and will stick to the window flat side down. The kids love to move these around and make fun holiday scenes. After we made these I thought it would have been fun to make a snowman building set of window clings--maybe that will be next!
Happy holiday decorating!

DIY Swirled Ornament

When you think kid-made ornament you probably think of salt dough stars and hand-print reindeer, but this year we wanted to step out of that box and try something new and "fancy" as Em says. Yes, I am in trouble with that one!

 I came across these glass balls and thought we could definitely use these for our traditional ornament making night.

 I added a drop or two of all surface arcylic paint to each ornament and placed the top back on.

 Shake. shake, shake!! This took some good shaking to get the paint to splatter around. I think I might water down the paints next time we do this to give it more movement. We dried these over night with the top off.

Look how pretty they turned out!  The perfect fit for our "fancy" tree!

DIY Graphic Tee for Back to School

 Well, we have started the count down (boohoo!) Summer vacation is almost over and we are starting to prepare for another wonderful school year. This is such an easy way to make a very cool t-shirt for back to school and also a good way to kick off the conversations about all things to come.

 Materials 

• t-shirt (pre-washed)
• masking tape
• fabric paint
• sponge brush
• sheet of paper

 1. Make your image outline using masking tape right onto the shirt. (Things with straight lines work best with this technique. Think simple!)
2. Add a sheet of paper or cardboard in between the shirt layers to keep the paint from going through to the other side.

 3. Squeeze small amounts of fabric paint onto the shirt and use the sponge brush to fill in your image. You want a very thin layer of paint.

 4. Once you are done filling in the image you can pull the tape off and let dry for a few hours.

There you have it! This was so easy and fun to customize for my daughter. I think I may have a new crafty addiction!

Burlap Flags for The 4th of July

 OK, I am a little bit in love with these flags. They came out so beautiful and rustic looking. A great DIY 4th of July home decor. They were pretty simple to make, too. Plus, we loved making them, together!

 We had a large sheet of burlap. You can get burlap at any fabric store and it's very inexpensive.

 We cut flag shapes in a few different sizes. Emma loved helping with this, but Grayson is still a bit rough around the edges with scissor control.

 We painted right onto the burlap using acrylic paints. Since burlap has small holes in it be sure to have paper on your working space.

 For our smaller flags we used popsicle sticks and for the larger ones, wood dowels worked perfect. A little hot glue connected the two and that was it.

 What do you think? I am a big fan of farmhouse style so these flags are beauties to me. I am even hoping to make a large pennant banner using the same theme.

If you don't have burlap and want to do a simple craft with the kids you can also just use paper for the flags. Enjoy!
For more details, I shared this craft tutorial over at Kiwi Crate.

Creating Wall Art with Children

 There are many paintings around my home that my children and I have created together. They are so special to me and I am sure one day they will be very special to my children, as well. I get asked about these so often. How to get your children involved in such a painting? How to keep it from turning into one big brown canvas?? I decided to right a post with tips to create your own masterpiece as a family. It's actually a great hobby to do together.

 OIL PASTEL, CANVAS & IDEA
I usually have my kids start with a large canvas and a black oil pastel. We sit and talk about what we want to paint and then talk some more about the different details that should be in our painting. At this age it is much easier for them to draw on the canvas and fill in with paint. Starting with paint is better for a very abstract painting.

TAKING TURNS ADDING TO THE ART
Having the kids take turns adding details has become a wonderful tool I use. Not only is it keeping our initial drawing from becoming too over crowded and out of control, but it is teaching my kids to work together and to be patient. At first, there was a lot of bickering, but eventually they enjoyed taking a moment to appreciate what the other was drawing. It was nice, really nice.

PAINT
Once we were satisfied with the drawing we moved on to paint. We used acrylic paints and kept it very simple using just four colors. Before I unleashed the paints I asked the kids to try their best to keep one brush to one color and to try not to mix colors too much. I also showed them how to blend instead of mix (this is very helpful at keeping a painting from turning into the infamous "brown" painting.)

 At this point we all painted together. The taking turns for the drawing stage was great, but all that is thrown out the window once the paint comes out!

 

 Here is what we ended with. Pretty good, right?

FINAL TOUCES
Once the painting was dry I used a foam brush and added a little bit of white washed details to soften it up a bit. You do this by dotting white paint in the areas you wish and using a rag to almost rub it in. This creates a softer look. I also used some gold paint to outline some of the kids drawings that I really wanted to stand out.

 We all signed out masterpiece and I gave our art two coats of clear varnish.

That was it. A beautiful painting made by my babies (and me.) Is it too presumptuous to imagine this hanging in my future grandchild's nursery???

Confetti Votive

 I just can't seem to get rid of jars. They have so many fun possibilities. We made these Festive Confetti Jars for the 4th of July. They were really easy and look so festive and fun when we set them outside with candles lit in each one.

 It's always fun for me to start projects like this without inviting the kids over. Once they get a peek at the cool materials I have out they just can't stay away. It's sort of my way of leaving that open invitation out for them to join me in creating, only if they want to. On this day they sure did! Who could resist that interesting mix above.

 Emma joined me and helped to mix some mod podge and confetti together. She had no idea what I was planning, but she's a girl who loves to mix things up, so she was fine with this job.

 I rummaged through our jar collection and pulled out a few. I think our backyard dining table will look great with a few of these in different sizes.

 Look how cool it already looked? You can cover them as much as you'd like. We went up a little more than half way on this jar. Using stencils to make shapes on the jars would be fun, too.

Now that is a good use for a pickle jar!

Birthday Party Decorations

 Today is my birthday and you know what that means....my kids are crafting away on homemade cards, banners and gifts to shower me with. All of which will mean the world to me! I can't imagine much more that I would want to be doing than waking up (a little too early) and reading "Mom u r mi frnd!" on a homemade card by my sweet girl. Life is good.
The banner above is one that Em made for her Grandma. We found some old music sheets at a thrift shop. I cut and she wrote. With a little tape and twine our Birthday Banner came together.

 

 This is a fun way to serve party snacks. The kids colored circles that I cut from paper grocery bags. Next, with a small cut they rolled into a cone and we filled them up with snacks! Check out more details, Party Snack Cup.

 We call this our Friendship Garland. It's fun to make with friends and a great DIY alternative to party streamers. Just pipe cleaner and beads is all you need.

Lastly, our Paper Plate Party Hat. We cut the top and popped it up to be decorated. So easy and can be personalized for any party theme. This also makes a great birthday party craft.

I am off now to enjoy my family on this (thirty something) birthday. Because that is what it is all about.
xo
green owl mama

Anthropologie Style Snack Jars for Teacher Appreciation

 We made some sweet snack jars for our teachers this week. Just a small way to say thank you. I can imagine teachers barely have a moment to grab a snack in a day filled with 20+ children. So, we decided to avoid the chocolate and go for some healthy bars and fruit leather that would be a nice pick-me-up in a long day. Bonus--we (handy husband) added these knobs to the top of each jar making a very Anthropolgie style canister for them to keep.

 The kids helped me fill the jars (and you don't need to buy jars, just recycle them from tomato sauce, pickles or whatever comes in your glass jars.) My husband drilled a hole in the top of each lid and did some other stuff that I really can't explain well, to get the knob to stay in place (sorry!)
I planned on having Emma write those little notes to attach, but her 5-year-old time limit was up, but her heart was there! We chatted about what teacher appreciation was and why teachers are so important.
Remember to thank all those teachers this week. They are truly angels on earth!

Papel Picado for Cinco De Mayo

 Have I told you I love celebrating....everything?! Not only is it fun for the kids, makes wonderful family memories, but it is also an opportunity to teach the kids about different places and cultures. Cinco De Mayo is this Sunday! Start the celebration by crafting some Papel Picado's to decorate for the occasion.

 There are many ways to make these beautiful paper banners, but we kept it very simple so that both kids could be included in the process and we could all craft together. We used Tissue paper and scissors and used the "snowflake" technique to create our banner.

 Some twine and tape put all our tissue flags in place.

Simple, but beautiful. Check out my full tutorial at Kiwi Crate.

Confetti Cork Board

 We needed a designated spot to display the kids art in our art room. This old cork board was great, but a little bland for our taste. We knew just what to do.

With a few Q-tips and an assortment of acrylic paints Emma got to work on turning our cork board into a beautiful work of art to display our art! She wandered off a few times and returned to find some mama added dots. It was just too hard to resist, besides at the rate Emma was moving we might have been displaying her college diploma on this bad boy.

Our end result was colorful, bright and perfect to hang on our art room wall. It really did look like confetti, just what we had hoped for. You can use this technique for so many different projects. Adding stencils would be fun to make confetti style images.

For more details on our colorful room addition, head over to Kiwi Crate.